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Monday, February 24, 2014

Well on Tuesday, February 18th I slide on Ice and crashed my car into the back of an 18" Wheeler Flatbed Truck who needless to say took off when the light turned green!! Just great right! Thank God nobody was hurt!! The damages are $4000. Thank God again for accident forgiveness and that everything is fully covered. I have a rental for about a month which is also covered! So yeah, how was your week lol :)

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Your pre-wire meeting consist of meeting with Guardian and it will cover Alarm Systems, and placement and selection of Internet, Cable, Sound Systems, Telephone Jacks, etc. anything electrical pretty much. If you do not know what comes free with your home - check with your SR as every community and state is different. Your Guardian rep will know this information as well.

When you get to this step, make sure you take time BEFORE your meeting to thoroughly go over your floor plan and start making some basic decisions on where you want furniture placement. For example - you will need to know what wall your want your TVs to go on, where you want your telephone plugs, cable outlets, internet plugs, and if you work from home where you want your outlets for phone/internet and desk. Doing this at the last minute in front of your Guardian rep is definitely not recommended as it leaves room for mistakes that possibly can't be fixed later. So do some PRE-PLANNING and save yourself a headache later.Here are our Selections:

Guardian Standard Alarm Package - We just went w/the basic package as we are current Guardian customers and called the 800 number and our rep told us we can add on later and they will give us a discount for additional door or window sensors. But MAKE SURE you at least put the Standard Basic Alarm Package in place that way its all pre-wired and ready to add onto.

We are adding our Guardian cost to our down payment as we don't want it to be in the mortgage.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER:

If you want to Wall Mount your TVs you would definitely add Wall Mount Pre-Wire - they do not hang your TV - but all the wires are put up high so you can easily do so. This is rather messy or complicated to add later.

Internet Jacks - Remember you will have a Wireless box in your basement from your internet service provider that hooks into your homes pre-wire. So its not necessary to add Internet Plugs in every room. We just added them where we wanted a direct connection.

If you want to hook up a blue ray player etc., make sure you get the proper HDMI pre-wires.

Basically if you tell your Guardian rep what you want to do in each room - a good rep can advice you on what type of Pre-Wire to add.

Friday, February 14, 2014

I was so proud of myself!! We did not Upgrade a Single thing! My bill was $0. Again, goal is to keep cost down. Our kids are grown and we have no pets. So we will use the flooring until it needs replaced 5+ years down the road. We may get our Hardwood sooner though. But overall I'm very happy with our selections and even though we did not upgrade anything - I think what we picked is absolutely gorgeous. Goal is to keep things out of our mortgage so mission accomplished! :)

This was a really fun process! I'm very proud of all the money we saved by building conservatively this time around! We only added structural upgrades that would be hard to do later. Below are our Selections for our Rome.

Elevation: Elevation C with All Siding

Color: Siding Color is Sandy Tan with Dark Berry Shutters and Marooned Door. Brick at base of home is Savannah Gray w/Buff Mortar. Exterior White Trim Around House and Garage

Standard Oak - Upstairs Hall Bathroom - we will be ripping this out and replacing it with a full size vanity and saving it for the finished basement later :)

Appliances - We stuck with all standard black appliances. Ryan charges way too much to upgrade to stainless steel and you basically lose your free credit for appliances because they don't take that into consideration with the upgrade cost. We will take their free appliances and sell them and use the money for stainless steel appliances or keep them and use them and replace them later.

Gas Dryer Hookup - Added for our gas dryer

Owners Suite Bathroom - We added the Shower with Garden Tub with no ceramic towel, and double bowl vanity. We can always add Ceramic Towel later now that the structures are in place. Although ceramic towel looks gorgeous! After my last home, I'm personally not a fan of scrubbing grout for hours on end with a toothbrush and bleach! No thank you!

Interior Specifications: Pine Stair w/Oak Handrail with White Balusters. I would have loved the black iron rod balusters but they were WAY OVERPRICED! We can add those ourselves later!

Electrical Specifications: Dedicated Circuit in the Garage for our Freezer

We just did standard light prewires as we learned no need to upgrade to Ceiling Fan Rough-in and pay the extra $125 because all that does is put a heavier bracket and adds extra wires and a switch to the wall to turn the fan off and on. First, we checked with Lowes and you can buy those heavier brackets for like $13. Second, who wants to get up to flick a fan off and on - that's what the remote is for LOL!

Note: Every model is different. Some models due to roof and attic position may not make it so accessible to get to your bracket so check on your model before deciding.

Update 2/21/14: I'm still waiting! This is like the longest wait EVER!!! So annoying! If they tell you it'll only be a few days - change that to a few weeks! It has now been 4 long dragged out grueling weeks! I'm hoping to hear something today or next week for sure.

I am in the mortgage approval stage and boy is it stressful!! But I must say my Loan Officer is going above and beyond to get this thing done. I think we should get an approval next week. It's been a long drawn out process coming up on about 4 weeks. I'm self employed so they want my first and second born! It's grueling! I have been so stressed out! I will just be glad when its all over with and approval in hand.